After Chaos Comes Greed

"Politicians are now fighting for ministerial positions. What is wrong with these people. Kenyans are in need of a small government that will provide them with descent administration, not a choir of politicians. Nini hii" Courtesy of Chilu.

Kenyanomics is Back

Has been months since Kenyanomics' last post. Sasa Tumerudi.

What Kenyans Want: NTV vs. Citizen TV Forums

I was struck by the difference of opinions expressed by Kenyans during NTV’s People’s Voice, which was aired from Nyeri (Central Province), and Citizen TV’s Louis Otieno Live in Narok (Rift Valley). Presenters Judy Gichuru for NTV and Louis Otieno for Citizen TV did great. They let Kenyans set the agenda.

Concerns fielded by both audiences could convince someone that NTV and Citizen TV were reporting from two distant countries, Nyeri being a developed nation and Narok a developing one. Nyeri audiences were concerned with issues like strengthening shilling that was making their exports expensive, Economic Partnership Agreements with EU, farmer exploitation by middlemen, slow pace of road reconstruction, and lack of title deeds in squatter areas among others.

The Maa community in Narok was on the other hand complaining about lack of visionary leadership in the area since independence (an attack on Ole Ntimama), lack of road infrastructure, poor education facilities, male domination in local politics, negligence of the girl-child, inequality in sharing national resources, and corruption in the Narok County Council, probably the richest local government in East and Central Africa.

Calls for a new constitution (read federalism, majimbo, devolution or ugatuzi) rent the air among panelists in Narok. The same calls were high during Louis Otieno Live in Kisumu and Mombasa, where the presenter got tired of Majimbo issue; he silenced anyone who brought it up. Interestingly, the ugatuzi question was virtually non-existent in Nyeri.

Bottom Line: We are one nation of 35 million people with 35 million interests. USIDANGANYWE. No constitution or leader can serve all those interests without hurting the nation. Politicians should leave Kenyans alone. Kenyan are capable of running their economic lives if politicians keep off. But will they? Let your vote decide.

The Problem With ODM Economics

Our possible government-in-waiting might use short cuts to solve perennial economic problems, such as: inflation, poverty, centralization of economic activities, poor access to education and health, and the marginalization of rural areas, youth and women. While those problems require urgent address, they cannot be resolved through instant formulas presented by Okemo, Ruto, Mudavadi, and Raila during the launch of ODM campaigns. I watched with aghast as speakers rose to say how high matatu fares, house rents, and food prices will become history; how Rift Valley farmers will start getting higher prices for their produce; how school fees from kindergarten to secondary school will be scrapped; and how private-public partnerships will solve parastatal crisis.

Bottom Line: This is economic nonsense. Should ODM win elections, Kenyanomics will be busy instilling economic sense in them. Incase they loose and the current administration returns, LGI Kenya—Kenyanomics’ sister blog—will be busy preaching transparency. Kalonzo’s ODM Kenya does not count; it may however join hands with Kibaki’s PNU, courtesy of a certain big man’s desire to settle political scores.

Vote Wisely and Say NO to Violence

Fake Answer in BBC's Weekly Quiz

I am a confessed addict of BBC’s Weekly world news quiz. This Friday’s marking scheme was somehow fake. The correct answer to Question 7 was B, but someone at BBC screwed-up. Nini hii:

Spam Email from Nation Newspapers????

I believe the following email was a spam.

From: Nation Media Group (Nation_Media_Group_rqgvybv@cmpgnr.com)

Dear KENYANOMICS

Thank you for the continuous support you have given nationmedia.com and for choosing to make it your preferred source of information on Kenya and the East African region. We also want to thank you for the feedback on our news, the interactive forums and also the news updates from all over the world that you (our members) send to us for publishing.
We have received a lot of requests for delivery of hard copies of our publications to Kenyans in all major cities of the world. In this regard, we are writing to know if you would be interested in this kind of service.
Kindly respond to this mail indicating the following:-

· If you would like to receive delayed hard copies.

· Which publications

· Town of residence

· Country of residence

Available publications on this service are:-

Publication	Indicate preferred publication	Indicate acceptable price
Daily Nation (Monday Friday)
Saturday Nation
Sunday Nation
Business Daily (Monday Friday)
The EastAfrican (Weekly)
Taifa Leo (Monday Saturday)
Taifa Jumapili

We would also appreciate if you spread the word to other Kenyans interested in getting a hard copy through this initiative. We would also like to clarify that due to logistical issues; the copies will always be a few days late, depending on your location.

Reducing Poverty through Economic Freedom

The following piece appears in today's In Brief, a publication of the Foundation for Economic Education

The worldwide obsession with poverty eradication is a major threat to economic freedom in developing nations. Through central planning, governments and aid agencies are busy blocking poor people’s road to prosperity. The United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) -- which seeks to magically reduce worldwide poverty by half before 2015 -- is the most popular, and disastrous, plan। The MDG Secretariat is urging developed countries to double their foreign aid, which will be used to promote UN programs on extreme hunger; primary education; gender equality; child mortality; maternal health; HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; environmental sustainability; and global partnership for development. The UN claims that poverty would be history if those issues were addressed. But it ain’t so! Things would be worse, considering that poor nations are being encouraged to spend more on the aforementioned programs. This would widen avenues of corruption and increase budget imbalances, both of which have crippled Third World economies for decades.

Then enter the Bretton Woods Poverty Reduction Papers (PRSP) that . . . read the entire article here